Belly Laughs: Adventures with Celebrities and Other Unusual Characters [Paperback]

Rod Long (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1999

Entertaining and quirky stories from 32 of the world's most mysterious women, who all just happen to be -- bellydancers! Their unusual careers bring them to movie stars, kings and presidents. REAL incidents ... tales that range from Keystone Cops-like capers to pure Hollywood glamour. If you like social satire, you'll enjoy this commentary on life in the performing arts!

- Meet the Middle Eastern diva who gets kidnapped by a prince -- and when she arrives home, she walks in on her own funeral!

- Dianna, the fiery redhead, gets hot under the collar when a Colombian drug lord tries to steal her accessories!

- When the beautiful Fahtiem brings her husband (a cop) to a Hollywood party, he eats a whole plateful of brownies. But they are baked with a secret ingredient ...

Sneak a peek behind the scenes with ...

- Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes - Billy Bob (and his brother, the president)
- Michael Jackson
- Madonna

- Find out how Mesmera gets Stevie Wonder to "watch" her dance!
- Join the elegant Tamalyn Dallal at tea time with Robert DeNiro.
- Plus, lots of odd, embarrassing, and just plain weird gigs!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'Byron the Boa' was great, brought it all together for me! Really funny. I know it's sick, but you gotta laugh -- how inventive can one store keeper get?" -- Scott B., United Kingdom

"...I'd love to see this after the movie rights are purchased! I got a lot of good visual images while reading this. The Jodette character is my favorite ... I'm probably biased towards this one because of the classical rock references (I'm 41 and used to DJ). And as for Mesmera and Michael Jackson -- love it! Interesting use of the 'screenplay technique' and the description was vivid and easy to conjure. This is a very unique and eclectic book. Bravo!" -- Mark Knope, USA, book reviewer

"Delilah's 'Close Encounters of the Strange Kind' seemed almost like that urban myth ... except this time it's not a friend of a friend. What a fun tale of communing with nature gone wrong! Kind regards ..." -- Jillian Anderson, Australia, a dancer

"Gloriously surreal ... 5 out of 5 stars, a big thumbs up. The 'Bellydancing in Tonga' story was hilarious. Made me think twice about being British, and the sheer idea of most of Tonga's currency smelling of coconut oil almost made me laugh out loud!" -- Ian, United Kingdom, regular person

"I enjoyed reading it very much! Some of the stories were almost unbelievable, except that I know weird things happen in showbiz, especially with people of other cultural backgrounds. As a dancer and as a woman, I found it very amusing." -- Teri Baginski, USA, a belly dancer

"I got a real chuckle out of this book." -- Shalazar, Canada, a dancer

"Jodette's Most Excellent Adventures ... fascinating and touching. Joplin and Hendrix?!! I can even 'hear' how Jodette speaks!" -- Tedi Thomas, USA, a belly dancer

"Okay, I'm a hard case and it's difficult to make me laugh ... but Stefania's UFO Museum story made me think, 'Hey, this one is good!' I grinned and almost laughed! And 'The Priest' was a voyage into the visual absurd, a bit like an episode of 'Happy Days.' 'Tea Time with DeNiro' worked for me very well -- this is 'British' humour -- we have loads of sit-coms with scenes like this! Trying to clear up for guests and not able to do it ... a classic. Ms. Dallal sounds like fun. Lives in a tip, but knows it..." -- Rex Smith, United Kingdom, book reviewer

"This book has some wonderfully twisted bits of writing; suits my sense of humour perfectly. Some stories have all the ingredients of a 1950s comedy/romance/action film! And "A Posse of Perverts was just surreal. That's the only word to describe it. Needless to say, I found it quite funny." -- Nathaniel Parr, USA, a regular guy.

About the Author

Seattle's Rod Long is a professional photographer, writer, and stand-up comedian who holds degrees in Journalism and Motion Picture Production. Long began dabbling in stand-up comedy in Los Angeles, where an uncanny impression of Muhammad Ali promoting bug killer got big laughs -- and he became hooked on facilitating laughter.

Now a veteran on the comedy scene, Long won the 1987 Seattle International Comedy Competition and the 1998 Emerald City's Funniest Person contest. He has been seen on the Showtime Comedy Club Network (twice) and has performed at Caesar's Palace, Caroline's, the Comedy Underground, and many other venues.

As Associate Editor for Peterson's PhotoGraphic Magazine, Long conducted a number of celebrity interviews, including a widely publicized chat with famed Hollywood glamour photographer George Hurrell.

Rod and wife Renee live in Seattle with what he calls his best work: four sons. (He continues to change a lot of diapers between gigs.)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dancing Moon Press (OR); 1 edition (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890916501
• ISBN-13: 978-1890916503
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,342,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Belly Laughs isn't exactly what I'd call it, June 15, 2001

By 

Stephanie Martin (Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Belly Laughs: Adventures with Celebrities and Other Unusual Characters (Paperback)

I'm disappointed in this book, I picked it up at a belly dance workshop, and figured it would be full of laughs. It's not exactly a book of funny stories, some of them are just plain weird, not funny, or didn't have anything to do with belly dancing.

One of the things that disappointed me most about the book is the story telling style. Long states at the beginning that he's not trying to embellish the stories or take them over, but we constantly get little bits of Long-ese (definitions of words he uses), and somehow I don't think all these belly dancers used Long-ese a lot. It's like he's constantly trying to remind us who's writing the book. He also crams the table of contents onto two pages in small type, but has no problems putting a definition of Long-ese on the page in large type, and then devoting the entire next page to a definition of 'buckwheat.'

A lot of the stories weren't funny, or didn't have a whole lot to do with belly dancing. The last story of the book is a narrative about one belly dancer's obsession with The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. There isn't any mention of belly dance in it, other than the person who was obsessed with him saw his wife dancing. Another one deals with one belly dancer's husband accidentally eating 'funny' brownies and then driving 10 miles an hour down the road.

The book isn't a total waste though, there are a few funny and interesting stories, one about a python that farted feathers, another about how a belly dancing cousin warmed up a somber wedding, and another about a mishap a dancer had when she danced with Omar Sharif. Other than that, there's not a whole lot of really good stories. If you're really interested in sorting through the bad to find the good, then order the book. If not, try to pick one up used or see if the library has a copy.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Gratuitous Name-Dropping and Annoying Writing Style, March 12, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Belly Laughs: Adventures with Celebrities and Other Unusual Characters (Paperback)

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But I found Long's narrative style to be very, very annoying. Every time I was just getting comfortably settled into reading one of the anecdotes in this book, I'd get jarred out of it by one of Long's not-very-funny made-up words. I felt as if he was a child trying to call attention to himself rather than letting the stories speak for themselves.

I also got annoyed with the emphasis on celebrities. Many of the stories featuring celebrities were simply not all that interesting, and would have been too weak to include in such a book if the main characters had been no-names. To me, they came across as gratuitous name-dropping.

Still, it was nice to see a book that painted a realistic picture of what it's like to be a belly dancer, and some of the stories were rather funny.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a Disgrace, January 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Belly Laughs: Adventures with Celebrities and Other Unusual Characters (Paperback)

This book is absolutely terrible. Maybe a couple of funny stories but overall it is an incredible waste and a torture to read.